Institutionalizing Sustainable Conflict Management in Organizations : Leaders, Networks, and Sensemaking

We investigated the process and outcomes of a systematic approach to institutionalize conflict management in a large public nonprofit organization. Using longitudinal and multilevel field data, we were able to identify the effects of the institutionalization process from multiple perspectives. We hypothesized and found the combination of three critical social factors — leadership, construction and maintenance of social networks, and the sensemaking processes — in the diffusion of both codified and tacit knowledge about conflict management. Also, social construction supplements structural factors in the institutionalization process of conflict management practices